The new variety was discovered, by the inventor, as the result of planned breeding program, involving hand-crossing of proprietary seedlings in Scotland. The parent varieties are both unnamed, undistributed proprietary seedlings. The discovery of the new variety was made by the inventor, Tony Coakley in August 2001 in a cultivated field of Delphiniums in Glasgow, Scotland.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘Morning Sunrise’ by tissue culture was performed in the Netherlands following selection and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.